±56 :\ruises. 



meaning in almost every word. Several little enigmas 

 remain, and not a few delicious little bits that I would 

 not decipher for the world. They read just as distinctly 

 when turned upside down as any other way, and this is a 

 great advantage at sea in stormy weather. Indeed, I am 

 convinced we could never have got through the Pentland 

 Frith without them. I shall have a spell at them again 

 as soon as I can, and am determined never to give up the 

 pursuit of knowledge under difficulties. 



" On Tuesday the 24th we took the Dasher out of Wick 

 Bay, ami, running southwards a bit, landed and inspected 

 various stations, such as Dunbeath, Lybster, and Latheron- 

 wheel. Lybster is the place for which we got a govern- 

 ment grant of dCu'OOO, for deepening the harbour and 

 extending the pier, so that boats may run in even at low 

 water. They are getting on with their excavations, and 

 all concerned seem to regard the grant as an immense 

 boon. Nobody who has not examined the dreadful barrier 

 of rocky precipice which forms almost the entire coast 

 along this eastern shore, can conceive the danger which 

 boats run when seeking their little creeks Avith the wind 

 on shore. On the J 9th of August two years ago, more 

 than a hundred men were drowned, and many thousand 

 pounds of property in nets and boats destroyed, in conse- 

 quence of a sudden storm along the Caithness shore. 

 Such disasters can never be altogether prevented, but 



